


The Truth

by BorgiaBabe



Series: High [14]
Category: The Vampire Diaries (TV)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-12
Updated: 2021-01-12
Packaged: 2021-03-16 21:54:19
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,892
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28713870
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BorgiaBabe/pseuds/BorgiaBabe
Summary: The One Where The Truth Finally Comes OutBonnie finally gets answers.
Relationships: Bonnie Bennett/Malachai "Kai" Parker
Series: High [14]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2091318
Comments: 8
Kudos: 16





	The Truth

When Nora comes back to school two weeks later Bonnie makes sure to stick to her side as best as she can, but it’s as if there’s a distance between them that Bonnie can’t cross. Having barely spoken the whole time she was gone, she knew Nora would be different, probably a little more quiet or low key, but that warm March morning when she comes back she acts as if nothing has happened, ignoring the stares and whispers like a pro. She breezes through her interactions with everyone in a ‘devil may care’ way and that includes Bonnie. She doesn’t know what to think but she can only take two days of it before she’s dragging Nora to an empty girl’s bathroom instead of going to sixth period. 

“What is going on with you?” Bonnie asks her directly. “You’ve been ignoring me since you’ve gotten back.”

“No, I haven’t,” Nora says in that easy, breezy tone that is infuriating.

“Nora. _Nora_ ,” her friend stops putting on the lipgloss she’s been trying to distract herself with. “Talk to me.”

Nora sighs. “It’s just-“ she looks as if she’s searching for the right words. “I just think with everything that’s happened it’s best we kinda just, back away from each other?”

“Why?” Bonnie asks surprised.

“C’mon Bonnie,” Nora says. “You’re with Kai.”

“You still think he did this?”

“He _did_ do it.”

“Nora-“

“No,” the brunette says. “I don’t want to hear any excuses.”

“It’s not an excuse,” Bonnie flares up. “He didn’t do it!”

“You can’t see it,” Nora nearly shouts now. “You just can’t,” she repeats, lowering her voice. “ _Something_ about him... _blinds_ you to who he really is. Even before the sex haze you’re in. Even when you two were at each other’s throats it was always ‘he’s never that bad.’ Yeah, hes tall, and brooding, and ‘good looking’ but do you know what else he is? He’s an angry, spiteful boy who has power practically seeping out of him.”

“He’s not-“

“There you go,” Nora says tiredly. “Bonnie, I love you like a sister. I do, but to be perfectly honest I’m sure you’re going to want nothing to do with me. And soon.” 

“What do you mean?”

Nora looks Bonnie dead in the eyes. “Bonnie. It was Kai who made that video. It was. And I _know_ it was. You want to know _how_ I know? Because I _know_ why he did it. _I know why_.” She sounds exhausted. “Just... ask. Ask him. I’m tired of wondering when you’ll stop loving me back and stop wanting to be my friend.”

“Why would I not want to be your friend anymore?” Bonnie asks warily. 

“Because, it turns out I’m a piece of shit,” she sighs.

“Nora, don’t say that,” Bonnie says softly. She holds onto Nora’s shoulders but the other girl won’t look her in the eyes. “Nora, please, I won’t look at you any different. Just tell me.”

The other girl gives a watery sniff and a sad smile, before pulling the smaller girl into her arms for a hug.

“I hope you wont,” she says. She lets go. “Just ask Kai. I’m not saying what I did was right, but I see you guys. I see you two; you’re in love. That kind of love that’s strong, and deep, and _real_. I wouldn’t be surprised if you guys had your suns and venus’ on top of each other. And I love that you’re so happy. I love it. I just- at first I was angry and embarrassed but now I just want you to know who you’re with. What he’s capable of. In more ways than one.”

Bonnie just stares at Nora as the other girl looks at her for a moment more before leaving the bathroom.

—

It takes Bonnie two whole days to work up the courage to finally bring up the subject. Every time she wanted to Kai just looked to settled and calm and she didn’t want to ruin the mood with accusations. But before long she couldn’t take the amount of questions piling up in her head. 

They’re doing their individual homework peacefully on his bed, legs intertwined and low music playing in the background.

“I know it’s ‘old news’” she broaches the subject carefully, like it just popped into her head on a whim “but we never talked about that video of Nora that was blasted everywhere. That was so foul.”

Kai shrugs.

Thats it. Shrugs and flips to the next page in his English textbook. Kai, who always has an opinion on everything, has nothing to say. Bonnie looks at him; his expression has barely changed. 

“I mean,” she pushes subtly, “don’t you think that was awful?”

“Yeah it was pretty bad, but that’s the risk these days?” he says nonchalantly.

“That’s the risk these days?” she parrots blankly.

“Yeah, sucking dick while there’s a camera on you could have its ‘unpleasant side effects,’” he snorts.

“That’s not the point,” Bonnie says sitting up, setting her Venus: Planet of Music textbook to the side. “Its just so- Who does that? What _kind_ of person does that?”

“I don’t know,” he says, sounding annoyed. “Maybe someone who thought she deserved it? That’d be my guess.”

“What could Nora possibly have done to deserve _that_?”

Kai’s jaw ticks. “Can we stop talking about this? I’m really not trying to have the visual in my head.”

Bonnie stares at him. His already clenched jaw ticks again and she automatically feels her stomach sink.  _ No _ ... she thinks. 

“It’s funny,” she says neutrally. “From the second it got leaked she was pretty insistent that it was you.”

His look of annoyance deepens, now colored with strong distaste. “I wouldn’t touch that bitch with a ten foot pole.”

“Yeah she basically said the same thing about you,” Bonnie says. “But she didnt say you were the one in the video. Shes actually swears its a fake.”

“A fake?”

“Yeah,” she says it wasn’t her.

“It sure looked a lot like her to me,” he says. But the way he says it is off. Like he's a mix of offended... and proud?

“Yeah she thinks it was an illusion.” Kai turns off the music.

“Why are we talking about this, Bonnie?” he asks looking her straight in the eye. An energy she hasn’t felt around him in a while starts to rise and her defenses start to raise in response. He’s challenging her. This she knows what to do with. _Keep_ _going_.

“Because she said it was you?” Kai scoffs but she continues. “And she said she knew that she knew it was you because she knows _why_ you did it. Why would she say that?”

“I don’t know.”

“She specifically said for me to ask you, so I’m asking you.”

“She’s insane”

“You keep saying that, but she’s not. She’s my one of my closest friends.”

“And we all know you're insane too,” he snaps and immediately looks apologetic. “I’m sorry. Damnit, I didn’t mean that-“ he reaches for her hand but Bonnie pulls away from his touch. Even though the comment stings it hovers just of reach; she stays focused on the goal.

“Nora is like my sister. I know her-“

“No, you don’t”

“ _Yes,_ I do.”

“No,” he snaps finally, tired if the back and forth. “No, _I_ know Nora Hildegard. _I_ know her too fucking well actually.”

“And what’s that supposed to mean?

“It means that she’s not as fantastic as you think she is, alright? She’s selfish, and fucked up, and evil as shit. She doesn’t care about anyone but herself.”

“Look,” Bonnie grits out, “I’m getting really tired of everyone talking in riddles. What happened between you and Nora? _Something_ did and don't deny it. There would be no reason for all of this animosity if nothing happened. Did you guys-“ she swallows hard “-if you guys slept together-“ Kai makes a disgusted face, but she keeps badgering him even as he gets up off the bed to turn away and walk over to his desk. “Or get into an argument tell me. Was it _about_ me? I don’t understand -“

She sees him wave his hand down quickly and a kind of muted nature permeates the air.

“Wha-“ her voice wounds funny to her own ears. A silencing spell? When did he even learn to do that? “How-“

“She fucked my dad.” Bonnie’s stops talking and she feels her mouth drop open in a big O. “Your _sister_ , your _best_ _friend_ that you know _so_ well, fucked my Father, Bonnie” Bonnie feels as if she’s made if stone. She couldn’t move to speak or go over to him even if she knew what to say or do. “She could have fucked up my entire family.” He turns to face her again and his eyes are blazing mad and despite the mute quality on the bedroom he lowers his voice as if still worried about being overheard by his family who are all roaming around. He’s nearly hissing in anger instead, gesticulating harshly with his hands.

“This Summer, when she washed back up in Mystic Falls, she was here _three_ damn days before she fucked _my_ _dad_ , in our _house_ , in my _parents_ _bedroom_ , and I had to walk in on that. Me, it was me. _I_ had to see that shit. Me and her used to fucking take baths together! Our families went to fucking Disney World together three years in a row. We threw a damn welcome back barbecue for them when they got back!”

Bonnie can’t even process what shes hearing. “What if it had been Liv, or Maddy, or Josette, or Mariyah??” He grips at his hair, looking wild for a moment, like just the possibility of it being anyone else in the family stumbling on the scene would have been disastrous, which it probably would have been. "My mother, Bonnie?If I had decided to not be an antisocial little shit and told Tyler and Matt I’d play ball with them my mother would have made it home before _all_ of us and would have seen that shit and then what? Screaming? Yelling? A divorce, my fucking family split up, my college fund fucked and all given to lawyers? Over _them_. Because of _that_?” 

He sounds lost, voice not an angry hiss but hollow and vacant, like imagining reliving a living nightmare. She wants to go over and hold him but he’s still going. “And how long were they doing that shit for?” he asks her, almost as if he expects her to know the answer. “Since she dragged her ass back to Virginia? Before? She’s only fucking eighteen, she’s our age. Is my dad a-“ he can’t even get the word out and Bonnie doesn’t blame him. She feels sick to her stomach as she looks at him in shock. She literally doesn’t know what to say.

She wishes she could say she's surprised that Nora had managed to kept this a secret, but she isn’t. They shared almost everything that year and it seemed as if Nora couldn’t keep a secret or a piece of gossip to save her life. Or at least it had seemed so. But deep down, Bonnie knew she was hiding something. She just never, ever imagined it was this. 

Suddenly a memory flashes to the surface; last summer, red and blue lights illuminating the night as Bonnie walked home. “Is that why the police were here? Is that what you guys were fighting about?”

Kai nods, expression hard. “I couldn’t help it; I just kept fucking seeing it, over, and over, and over again and my mother had no idea. Still doesn't. And my dad, he kept _looking_ at me. Looking at me like it was on me to make sure it all stayed a secret-“ He shakes his head. “I hit him one night. One second he was laughing and talking like everything was alright, and the next I had blacked out and then…” he zones out. “I just kept hitting him and I couldn’t stop screaming that he was a piece of shit. I could’t even say what for, but I couldn’t stop and I just kept trying to smash his face into the fucking floor, the wall, anywhere I could. It was like I wasn’t even me. It was like someone else was controlling me...”

“Who called the police?” Bonnie whispers.

“Mariyah. I can’t even get mad; it was just the three of us here and I hauled off and hit our dad out of nowhere. She probably thought I was losing it. I _was_ losing it.”

They stare at each other and Bonnie takes a deep breath. Kai looks relieved and burdened at the same time, an interesting mix she’s never seen before. “And that’s why I can’t stand that bitch,” he continues coldly, returning to the topic at hand before turning away again. “And whatever she’s going through now she deserves.” It’s the way he says it, dark and so ugly, the way his shoulders are hunched as he leans over his desk, palms flat on the surface that makes something niggle at the base of her skull. 

_I know Kai did it..._

_No one at Mystic High could..._

_You don’t know Kai, he’s stronger than you think..._

But he couldn’t. Not wouldn’t, just literally couldn’t... but then all the things that she never paid close attention to start to flip through her head in a kaleidoscope fashion; the age old, worn texts that she’s seen him carrying around for at least two years and fill his book shelves. How strong and flawless his Equium is, the rings he wears and how they literally glow at times... and how he took them off the first time she was able to manifest. The swift and efficent muting spell she can still feel but didn’t even know he could do...

“Kai,” she asks calmly. She tries to keep her voice even, even as the realization is setting in on her quickly. “Was that really Nora? In that video?” Kai doesn’t answer. She finally wills her limbs to move enough to get up off his bed to step closer, just a little. “She said- she keeps saying it wasn’t her; she swore that it wasn’t her, even though her face was in it. But I saw her. I heard her. I didn’t believe her but…” Kai’s back tenses as she gets closer to the question and, with another step, to him. “Kai did you create that illusion of Nora doing those things and film it?”

As she waits a strange feeling crawls up her spine. That particular type of magic is advanced as hell- it’s literally creating something out of nothing, not just modifying the seen and unseen. It’s like being the witch version of the most expensive recording, sound, and computing technology. Those who could wield the Craft well into their thirties and forties can’t even create an illusion period, let alone one that is steady, long, and strong enough to catch it on camera and not have it blur or break along the seams once digitized. Most witches will never reach that level. Hell even the Illusions on TV are helped along with technology and one or two skilled witches in the wings. 

But a eighteen year old senior on the high school football, basketball, and soccer teams apparently can. And has. 

He doesn’t answer for a long time. Finally when Bonnie thinks he won’t he says quietly, “it wasn’t that hard. I didn’t have to go far in my imagination. It’s all burned into my memory. I just... switched some stuff around.”

Absently she feels like cold water has been dumped on her. Her boyfriend created an extremely detailed and advanced sex tape of her best friend and let it out to over one thousand people at their high school because said best friend fucked boyfriend’s dad. As if knowing the answer will matter at all she asks dumbly “Why now? Why now if it happened last year?”

“Because I told her if she came next to my family ever again she’d be sorry.”

“She did it again?” Bonnie asks, aghast. 

“I don’t know for sure,” he says suspiciousness heavy in his voice, “but Joey said he saw her leaving the house right before Christmas break ended and the only one here was that fucker,” he refers to his own father harshly. “Then she has the nerve to say she wouldn’t choose me for you and that she’s going to take you ‘real boyfriend shopping.’ Yeah, I heard her say it.”

“That was a joke-“ Bonnie says weakly. 

“No. It wasn’t. Nora doesnt want me to be with you. When are you going to get it? She’s a touchy, feely, selfish cunt who takes whatever and whoever she wants. If we didn’t have the connection that we do, she probably would have. And I know her, I always have. She wouldn’t have stopped, Bon. She would have tried to eat you out eventually if she hasn’t already, the way she’s always all over you.”

“We haven't.” Bonnie blushes hard.

“Yeah, but she wants to,” he says, agitated. “She could have gone for anyone, Bonnie, but who do I get to see her hanging all over after almost tearing my family to shreds? The one girl she knew I loved before I knew what love even was. Oh yeah, she knew,” he says laughing humorlessly at Bonnie’s surprised expression. “She’s always known how I felt about you. I’ve liked you since fucking fourth grade and she was like family. Everyone, including her, knew. Even the ones who didn’t torment me about it.”

“What she did was - that was awful- I don’t even- but the video-“ all her words are all tangled together.

“What about the video?” he demands.

“I mean it was just fucked up,” she shrugs, feeling numb. “I understand what happened was awful, and terrible, and there’s _no_ excuse for what happened. But revenge porn is... and fake revenge porn is worse.”

“Are you fucking kidding me?” he says, looking at her like she’s crazy. 

“What?” she throws her arms out. “You think that was ok? I’m just saying-“

“You’re going to take her side?”

“I’m not taking anyone’s side! It’s all wrong!”

“You should be backing me up!” he shouts now.“Why are always picking other people over me?”

“I don’t!”

“You do! Fuck a fake video, she’ll get over that. She’s going to get the hell out of Mystic Falls after graduation anyway. She almost broke my entire family up. She basically did; have you noticed my Father anywhere lately? It’s like now that someone knows he can’t even show his face. Or maybe he’s off fucking more barely legals. But _you_. You, Bonnie, you always pick someone else’s side to stand on and you're doing it now, even when they don’t fucking deserve it.”

“I’m not- I-“ Bonnie stutters. “I’m not, I just didn’t _know_ -“

“Well now you know,” he snaps. “At least with Jamie I could understand; I just lost out to someone else, but you don’t even know Nora. You think you do - everyone thinks they do, but they don’t. No one knows her like I do.”

“Jamie?” Bonnie blurts out; that’s all that sticks in her head. “What does Jamie have to do with this? Does he know about this too?”

Kai laughs and it sounds mean and mildly unhinged. “If he does I didn’t tell him. But who knows what the fuck their pillow talk sounds like. Fuck them both.”

“Then what’s Jamie got to do with anything?”

“Oh please, Bonnie. You picked him over me when you were going through you Interception peak. And ok, fine. We were everything to each other, but you still picked him. I get it - you say he’s like your brother. But this time you’re mine. You’re supposed to be on my fucking side. Mine. Not hers.”

“She’s my friend too, and I _didn’t even know_ about this,” Bonnie hears herself saying. It’s like her mouth is on auto-pilot, mind going almost too quickly to string a coherent thought together. “You want me to just jump-“ he opens his mouth to interrupt but she keeps going, raising her voice a little louder, “-into this incredible anger with you, when I’m still trying to wrap my fucking mind around any of this period. It’s messed up. I’m not saying that it's right.” She thinks about Mr. Parker - responsible, great cook, great provider, so kind in all the years she’s known him - doing that and she shakes her head a little as if to dispel the idea. “I can't believe your dad did that. I can’t believe Nora did that, and maybe twice. That’s insane. But I’m not reactive like you Kai. I can’t be. Like, give me a second.”

Kai shakes his head. “Bullshit. Stop using my Aries moon for an excuse for everything. Like your Virgo moon is any better.”

“Then stop letting it be in charge, the hell! And actually, yeah, in this case, it is - for one, it wouldn’t have urged me to make a fake sex tape! Just let me think!” He stands there fuming, but silent. His rings are practically bronze they are glowing so brightly. So not only is Nora sleeping with parents, Kai is pissed and ultra powerful at this stage in the game and she had no idea.

Another thought creeps in. A dark one she doesn’t want to consider but has to ask.

Nora’s voice floats into her head,  ‘ .. _like he wants to kill you sometimes...' 'I’d know - he hates me too… He looks at me like he looks at you…’_

That’s not the case anymore but...he has all of this power, more control over it than she could have imagined, and extremely reactive. “…would you ever do that to me?” she whispers and he looks at her like she’s got three heads. 

“Do what?” She doesn’t answer but he seems to understand. “I would never do that to you. Why would you think that I ever would?” He narrows his eyes “What did you do?”

“Nothing,” she says quickly and takes a half- step back. He sees her retreat and takes a step forward to compensate for the distance. “Just, a while ago, Nora said you hate me-“

“What? How would she know dick? I never told her that.”

“-because she knows you hate her and you look at her like you used to look at me.” The words come out in a rush. Thoughts are dashing around her head. He has all this power and she doesn’t think anyone even knows. And he has a temper. What if one day after the honeymoon phase is over they get into a vicious argument and...

He crosses the room in three strides so quickly she starts a little, her thoughts interrupted. “Don’t listen to her,” he sounds so angry that she instantly regrets saying anything. He already hates Nora enough to do what he did with the video. Now she's let out that Nora told her how he felt about her. He’s probably going to poison her water next. “That’s the shit I’m talking about - she knows I’d never do that to you. Nothing you could ever or would ever do would make me think of doing anything like that to you.”

“You treat me like I do, or you used to,” she answers back, forcing herself to keep eye contact, willing her neck not to bow. “Sometimes. You were so fucking... mean to me, you’d say the worst shit. You made me fuck you for drugs-“

She really jumps when Kai moves closer but it’s only to cradle her face in his hands firmly, shoulders hunched so he’s closer, lower to her eye level. The rings on his fingers sing with magic and are cool against her skin. His blue grey eyes make sure her own slanted green are fixed on his when he says lowly and slowly, “I don’t hate you. I have never hated you. I literally don’t think it’s physically possible for me to hate you. When are you going to read our Synastry?”

She frowns deeply and opens her mouth to argue but he continues. “I thought I could. The Great Creator knows I tried so many times.” He looks like he wants to say more, he searches her face like he’ll find the words. His thumbs stroke her cheeks softly “But I can’t .”

“Then why...?”

He actually huffs out a little humorless laugh and lets go of her face to step back a few feet and run a hand roughly down his own. His rings flare as he looks at her straight on when he answers her. “Isn’t it obvious by now, Bonnie? You broke my heart. Multiple times. You kept breaking my heart for years and you didn’t even fucking know you were doing it.”

“What?” She feels like a broken record.

Nothing is making sense tonight.

“I don’t like…anyone, really. I never really have. I don’t even know why people like me. But I liked you. I loved you.” She stares at him. “You were my first everything. We were each other’s first everything.”

“We were thirteen,” she says lamely.

“I don’t care; like you can’t say the same?” he says stubbornly. “We’re eighteen now, and I still hate everyone. And I still only like you and I still only love you. And I hated that. And I used to hate that I wanted to hate you but every time I saw you all I wanted to do was…” he trails off and runs his fingers through his hair. It all seems like too much for him too all of a sudden. "And if _Nora_ ,” he spits her name out “said it looked like I hated you then it was the fact that you weren’t mine; that when you were going through your shit you pushed me out and picked Jamie’s shoulder to cry on instead of mine, the one who you gave everything to. Or it was because she was always attached to your hip whenever I saw you.

We were still together and then you just stopped fucking talking to me one day." He pauses like he isn't sure he wants to say this next part but he does anyway. “And...I did that bullshit with the Equium because I was able to talk to you again, to touch you again; you let me have you again when we were...” he trails off, eyes pained. “And another sick part of me thought tainting everything would make me get over it all, but that shit backfired. I needed you more than ever after that first time. I _still_ don’t want anyone else.” 

Bonnie says nothing. She can’t.

“I’m sorry about that by the way. Every time we did it afterwards I felt like shit but it was- you were -we were finally-“ he looks down at the ground. “But it just fucked us up more and I’m sorry. I’m mad at myself for even selling you that shit. I don't even know how you got your hands on it and I shouldn’t have been giving that to you knowing you were Intercepted and your mom had just...” Bonnie tries to swallow the sudden lump in her throat. “I was helping you hurt yourself and I hate myself for it.”

Bonnie’s ears start ringing and she feels as if she’s outside of her body. She hears his words, all of them. Understands it all but can’t absorb any of it. She feels empty when she hears her muffled voice say blankly, “I cant’t do this right now.“

“Do what?” he sounds alarmed.

“Any of this.”

“Bonnie wait,” Kai implores. “Bon, let’s just talk about this.”

“Don’t want to. Can’t.” She says stiffly. All she thinks as she calmly shoves her feet into her sneakers and grabs her bag is that she isn’t going to think about shit else for the rest of the night. She feels like suddenly she and everyone else close to her has lost their mind. 

“Bonnie- baby, please-“

“I’ll call you later,” she says calmly, still a little stiffly and before grabbing his doorknob digs through his drawer for a fresh vial of Equium. 

He doesnt follow her out of his room, down the hall, or as she casually tells everyone she passes she’ll see them next time. 

He doesn’t follow her to the front door, whose handle turns before she can touch it.

“Oh hey Bonnie!” Mr. Parker greets her cheerfully, briefcase in hand, tie loosened and sleeves rolled up. “Feels like I haven’t seen you in ages. How’ve you been?”

Bonnie stares at him for a moment too long before smiling. “I’ve been great. You?”

“Oh you know, same ol same ol,” he smiles charmingly. 

Bonnie mirrors the smile and skirts around him. “Oh I know how it is. Sorry for rushing, but Dad wants me to grab something from the store before they close.”

He waves her off kindly. “No problem; we’ll catch up next time, kiddo.”

“Yeah,” she says, stomach churning at the familiar nickname as she walks outside.

Did he once call Nora kiddo too?

**Author's Note:**

> ...well then...


End file.
